Management of Soil Fertility and Agricultural Intensification in NW Iberia, 1750–1900

Corbacho González Beatriz (), Padró Caminal Roc (), Soto Fernández David () and Fernández Prieto Lourenzo ()
Additional contact information
Corbacho González Beatriz: Departamento de Historia, Facultade de Xeografía e Historia, University of Santiago de Compostela, Praza da Universidade, 1, Santiago de Compostela, 15703, Coruña, Spain
Padró Caminal Roc: Instituto de Estudios Regionales y Metropolitanos de Barcelona, Plaça del Coneixement, Edifici MRA, segona planta, Campus UAB de, 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain
Soto Fernández David: Facultade de Administración e Dirección de Empresas, Avda. Alfonso X O Sabio, s/n, 27002, Lugo, Spain
Fernández Prieto Lourenzo: Departamento de Historia, Facultade de Xeografía e Historia, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, 15782, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

Jahrbuch für Wirtschaftsgeschichte / Economic History Yearbook, 2021, vol. 62, issue 1, 19-47

Abstract: This article describes agricultural practices of fertilization in the NW of the Iberian Peninsula between 1750 and 1900, where a leguminous plant called gorse (Ulex Europaeus) was used as bedding for livestock in order to produce manure. During the period examined, this whole region experienced a process of agricultural intensification which resulted in a net loss of nutrients in the soil. Peasants dealt with the increasing nutrient requirements by adapting land and livestock management in order to produce more manure during the second half of the 20th century. However, this was done at the expense of nutrient reserves in extensively managed areas, all of which resulted in an unsustainable agricultural pattern. Our data also suggest that the context of nutrient scarcity could be related to changes in the migration pattern, which started to be more intense after 1850 and preferred distant destinations (America), thus switching from seasonal to permanent stays.

Keywords: Environmental history; agricultural intensification; mixed farming; fertilization; social metabolism; nutrient balances; Umweltgeschichte; Agrarintensivierung; gemischte Landwirtschaft; Düngung; sozialer; Stoffwechsel; Nährstoffhaushalt (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N Q (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1515/jbwg-2021-0002 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bpj:jbwige:v:62:y:2021:i:1:p:19-47:n:5

DOI: 10.1515/jbwg-2021-0002

Access Statistics for this article

Jahrbuch für Wirtschaftsgeschichte / Economic History Yearbook is currently edited by Dieter Ziegler

More articles in Jahrbuch für Wirtschaftsgeschichte / Economic History Yearbook from De Gruyter
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Peter Golla ().